What are your must do's....

ConnieT1030

Eat less than my target calories per day (a deficit of my choosing) and more than 1,000 calories per day (minimum for women). I manage that by counting calories.

That's all the "musts" there are for weight loss. Anything else is preference.

STEVE142142

Will giveyou my perspective, lost 80 pounds have been keeping it off for over 7months.

A lot of posters have given really good ideas but what it really comes down to is a mental decision. As someone who tried diets before this was the easiest thing I ever did I didn't look at it as a diet, it was a lifestyle change and I basically educated myself about food what I eat and the consequences of eating whatever I ate.

I have a simple philosophy eat whatever you want as long as it fits within your caloric goals. If I couldn't eat the occasional Wendy's hamburger slice of pizza or beers on the beach I could have never done this. For this to work it has to be enjoyable and by giving up stuff you like it's not going to work long-term it has to be sustainable

fubarfornow

Plan ahead, and have a Plan B stash of filling, healthy and lower calorie food (protein shakes, protein bars, and jars of homemade soup in the freezer) for those times when the first plan goes awry (like leaving my perishable home-packed lunch sitting in the sun when I walked in to a work emergency and forgot to put it away). If I blow both Plan A and don't have a Plan B, the siren song of fast food becomes much harder to ignore.